Sambal Oelek is a red chili sauce from Indonesia. Sambal Oelek can be made simply with just red chillies, sugar and salt but our Sambal Oelek red chili sauce recipe contains other ingredients to make a rich spicy sauce. Sambal is an Indonesian word for anything containing a large amount of chillies. When choosing the type of Chili to use in this recipe remember that generally speaking, the smaller the chili, the hotter it will be. Sambal Oelek is meant to be hot so try not to be too conservative with the Chillies.